BURN: Learn

Basic information about the science of Energy. Science is at the core of understanding our relationship with Energy, but don’t worry: science does not have to be scary. We start with the basics and go from there.

Combustion reactions, or burning, create many different chemical compounds, but the most prevalent one is carbon dioxide. Other compounds produced depend on where the fuel came from and how it was burned.

Storing energy is important for both long-term and short-term uses: to meet changes in energy supply and demand and to iron out irregularities in energy output, whether that’s in a car engine or on the power grid. Unfortunately, we can only store a tiny fraction of the electricity we produce in a single day. Instead, power plants have to send their thousands of megawatts of electricity to the right place, at the right time.

Wind energy is one of the cleanest forms of energy available because it doesn’t require a fuel or produce greenhouse gas or other bi-products, outside of those from production and maintenance of equipment and transmission.

The “hydrogen economy” is a hypothetical future in which energy can be bought, sold, stored, and transported in a currency of hydrogen, much like today’s energy is often exchanged in electricity. Because hydrogen doesn’t need to be attached to the electricity grid, it can be used in forms of transportation like buses and cars.

This is where you’ll find some basic information about the science of Energy. And let’s be absolutely clear about it: science is at the core of understanding our relationship with Energy. But don’t worry, science does not have to be scary. We’ll start with the basics and go from there.

Energy comes in two basic forms: potential and kinetic. Potential Energy is any type of stored energy; it isn’t shown through movement. Potential energy can be chemical, nuclear, gravitational, or mechanical. Kinetic Energy is the energy of movements: the motion of objects (from people to planets), the vibrations of atoms by sound waves or in thermal energy (heat), the electromagnetic energy of the movements of light waves, and the motion of electrons in electricity.

Salt domes are massive underground salt deposits. Mushroom-shaped and thousands of feet thick, they form where shallows seas once stood. They built up over tens of thousands of years as saltwater flooded these former marine basins, then evaporated.

Machines are so complicated these days it’s difficult to quickly explain how they work. Nonetheless, today’s machines were built using the basic scientific principles that we began harnessing hundreds of years ago.

Energy accounted for almost 40 percent of water use in 2000, according to figures by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The United States took more than 400 billion gallons of water out of the ground, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs daily in 2005. That’s more than a thousand gallons per person, per day.

You don’t have to talk about hurricanes and tsunamis to know that the oceans are powerful. People have dreamed about harnessing their energies for centuries, and today there are many projects worldwide experimenting with just how to plug into the oceans.